Full Description
Brimming with fresh insights, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of the personal, cultural, intellectual, professional, political and religious contexts in which immensely gifted brother and sister Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy lived and worked. Based on the latest research, it explores nineteenth-century musical culture from different yet complementary perspectives, including gender roles, private vs public music-making, cultural institutions, and reception history. Thematically organised, concise chapters cover a broad range of topics from family, friends and colleagues, to poetry, art and aesthetics, foreign travel, celebrity and legacy. With contributions from a host of Mendelssohn and Hensel experts as well as leading scholars from disciplines beyond musicology it sheds new light on the environments in which the Mendelssohns moved, promoting a deeper understanding their music.
Contents
List of Figures; List of Tables; List of Contributors; Abbreviations; Preface; Part I. Family and Upbringing: 1. Berlin Jews in the long Eighteenth Century David Conway; 2. Family background Susan Wollenberg; 3. Education Cornelia Bartsch; 4. The family cosmos Beatrix Borchard; 5. Fanny and Felix's personal relationship Angela R. Mace; 6. Fanny and Felix's musical relationship R. Larry Todd; Part II. Friends and Colleagues: 7. 'Das Rad': circles of friendship Thomas Schmidt; 8. Adult friendships; 9. Luminaries John Michael Cooper; 10. Colleagues (and Friends?) Maximilian Rosenthal; 11. Critics James Garratt; 12. Relations with publishers Maximilian Rosenthal; Part III. Cultural and Intellectual Worlds: 13. Aesthetics and Philosophy James Garratt; 14. Theology Laura K. T. Stokes; 15. Literary inheritance Lorraine Byrne Bodley; 16. Politics Sanna Pederson; 17. Visual art and painting Thomas Tolley; 18. Correspondence Peter Ward Jones; Part IV. Environments and Institutions: 19. Berlin's cultural and musical life, c. 1811-32 Jennifer Ronyak; 20. Leading music institutions in Leipzig Stefan Keym and Mirjam Gerber; 21. The Berlin of Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1840-47) Jason Geary; 22. The Leipzig Conservatory Ariane Jeßulat; 23. Travellers Monika Hennemann; 24. England Peter Ward Jones; Part V. Musical Activities: 25. Professional and public music-making Katharina Uhde; 26. Private and amateur music-making Jennifer Ronyak; 27. Publishing and editing Douglass Seaton; 28. Constructing a musical canon Peter Mercer-Taylor; 29. The Bach revival Wolfgang Dinglinger; 30. Beethoven Benedict Taylor; Part VI. Reception and Legacies; 31. Interpretations of Jewish Identity Susan Wollenberg; 32. Felix Mendelssohn's reception in his lifetime Sinead Dempsey Garratt; 33. The curation of the Mendelssohns' legacy Christiane Wiesenfeldt; 34. Felix Mendelssohn's posthumous reception Barbara Eichner; 35. Fanny Hensel's reception and revival Marian Wilson Kimber; 36. Fanny Hensel's modern legacy Stephen Rodgers; Epilogue: A Future for Mendelssohn and Hensel Studies Benedict Taylor and Thomas Schmidt.
